Summary

Sends photograph.

THH wishes he could write the popular zoology but writing is a boring and slow process when he is not interested, and he is overburdened with lectures.

Summary

Thanks for photograph, charmed by Mrs Huxley’s letter.

Regrets THH cannot do the popular work on zoology.

Has heard THH wrote leading article in last Reader ["Science and ""church policy"" ", 4 (1864): 821].

Summary

Thanks for [E. Eudes?] Deslongchamps’ paper.

Henry Huxley born.

Leader in Reader [4 (1864): 821] is by THH. It has got him into trouble with some of his friends.

Summary

Sends Catalogue [of the collection of fossils in the Museum of Practical Geology (1865)], most of which was written in pre-Darwinian epoch [i.e., 1857].

Hears magnum opus [Variation] completely developed, though not yet born.

Summary

Thanks for Catalogue.

Has had a bad month. Somewhat improved as a result of John Chapman’s ice-bag cures.

Asks THH to read MS on his hypothesis Pangenesis. THH only man whose judgment on it would be final with him.

Summary

Glad to read what CD sends. Any glimmer of light on those subjects is of utmost importance.

Quotes a letter from Haeckel on progress of Darwinism in Germany.

Summary

Thanks for THH’s willingness to read Pangenesis MS. Thinks some such view will have to be adopted but it overthrows, in an uncomfortable manner, ordinary development.

Summary

MS arrived. Has glanced at it and sees he must put on his sharpest spectacles and best considering cap.

Summary

Thanks THH for reading Pangenesis MS. Will read Buffon and Bonnet (as he does not want to republish their views) and will try to persuade himself not to publish.

Summary

Has read Buffon; whole pages are like his own. But CD is not converted to non-belief. There is a fundamental distinction between Pangenesis and Buffon. Fears he may not resist publishing it, but will be cautious.

Summary

Did not intend to persuade CD against publishing Pangenesis. Will not take the responsibility, nor risk being made a horrible example 50 years hence.

Summary

Has returned from holiday. Family news.

Concern over Hooker’s health.

Summary

Has done nothing since 1 May. Slowly getting better under Bence Jones’s diet.

The Reader has been sold – would regret its failure as a newspaper for general science.

Pangenesis is recovering from shock it received from THH’s criticism.